Cisco: specialisation revamp will not thin Gold ranks

Vendor's channel chiefs explain effects of channel programme changes and increased competitive landscape

Keith Goodwin: partners will evolve in the direction where they believe the opportunity is

The Cisco channel’s top brass have stressed that the process of revamping the vendor’s specialisation model will not be prohibitive to achieving or maintaining Gold partner status.

The vendor also used its ongoing partner conference to detail how Cisco’s rising conflict with HP may affect the channel.

Edison Peres, senior vice president of Cisco’s worldwide partner organisation go-to-market group, told ChannelWeb he did not expect changing the vendor’s specialisations from a technological to an architectural focus to have a tangible effect on Gold partner ranks.

“I do not see it that way,” he said. “There is a little bit of a cost (in becoming a specialist). Therefore we need to enable partners and brand them as such.”

Senior vice president of Cisco’s worldwide partner organisation Keith Goodwin added that the vendor would endeavour not to put VARs in a tough spot as a result of the networking vendor’s increased rivalry with HP.

“Competition is a great thing,” he told ChannelWeb. “Our partners have a choice and we are going to present to them a compelling vision of where they are going in the future. The partners will evolve in the direction where they believe the opportunity is. Will they have to make choices? Perhaps. But our goal is to inspire them.”